Five days removed from round six of the 2020 MotoAmerica Series at New Jersey Motorsports Park, the men of the HONOS Superbike class will take to the track at Barber Motorsports Park for practice on Friday morning with the same goal as the previous six rounds: Put a stop to the runaway train that is Cameron Beaubier.
Easier said than done.
Plain and simple, Beaubier is on a tear. Dating back to last year, 14 of the last 15 HONOS Superbike races and eight in a row in 2020. His points lead is a massive 84 points and he hasn’t shown any signs of slowing down. In fact, there are times when he looks as though he can crank it up a notch if the need presents itself.
Beaubier’s 84-point lead is over his Monster Energy Attack Performance teammate Jake Gagne, who with six second-place finishes is the closest anyone has come to beating the four-time MotoAmerica Superbike Champion. Gagne, meanwhile, has his hands full with Westby Racing’s Mathew Scholtz, the South African just six points behind with three rounds to go. Their battle at NJMP on Sunday was enthralling with Gagne just drafting past Scholtz at the finish line to get second by .014 of a second. Those two have definitely proven to be the best of the rest based on their consistent podium finishes.
However, the only other rider to have won a HONOS Superbike race in 2020 is neither of the aforementioned Gagne or Scholtz. It’s Bobby Fong.
Fong and his M4 ECSTAR Suzuki won the fourth race of the season at Road America when Beaubier crashed, but the Stockton, California, racer has been battling an injured wrist since crashing out of race one at PittRace. Fong, however, has been on the podium since with two third-place finishes at the Ridge, but he was off the pace at NJMP with fifth and fourth place finishes.
Fong is 47 points behind Scholtz and 22 points ahead of his teammate Toni Elias, the Spaniard coming off his best weekend of the season at NJMP where he ended an 11-race streak of not finishing on the podium with a third-place finish on Saturday.
KWR Ducati’s Kyle Wyman was fourth and sixth in the two races in New Jersey and he now trails Elias by just four points. The New Yorker is eight points clear of Scheibe Racing BMW’s Josh Herrin, with Herrin having a tough weekend at NJMP that netted him just six points.
FLY Racing ADR Motorsports’ David Anthony continued his consistent season at New Jersey, and he sits eighth in the title chase, 12 points clear of Stock 1000 Championship points leader Cameron Petersen and his Altus Motorsports Suzuki GSX-R1000.
Travis Wyman Racing’s Travis Wyman is 10th in the series standings, moving three points clear of the injured Bradley Ward on Sunday in New Jersey. Ward, who suffered a broken femur, in the crash at NJMP will likely drop down the standings as he will miss the Barber round at the very least while he recovers.
HONOS Superbike qualifying practice begins at 11:20 a.m. on Friday with Saturday’s Superpole session set to begin at 11:15 a.m. followed by race one at 3:10 p.m. Race two will be held on Sunday, also at 3:10 p.m.
To purchase tickets for all MotoAmerica events, click HERE
For information on how to watch the MotoAmerica Series, click HERE
For the full 2020 MotoAmerica Series schedule, click HERE
